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Whether it’s your first or your tenth Nanowrimo, the pressure is still the same. In between work, school, homework, housework and crying babies, you somehow need to pump out 1600 plus words of legible, coherent text a day, every day for the whole of November.

It’s not that easy. Things happen, good and bad, that interfere with your schedule. Days pass when your fingers never touch the computer and while that’s okay in the early days, by the middle of the month, these can be disastrous. And for some reason, once you’re 10k words behind, the writer’s block problems start to gather. This story doesn’t make sense. It’s going in the wrong direction. There are too many inconsistencies…. And there’s a party tonight.

And yes, if you don’t finish Nanowrimo, it’s not the end of the world. But if you do want to do it and you are flailing, I’ve got 3 tips to help you out.

1. You’ve lost the plot
It’s so easy to write when you know where you’re going, but as soon as you go off track you’ve only got two options. One, write around to bring the story back or – heaven forbid – delete. Okay, no one should be deleting more than say, 500 words ever for Nanowrimo. The month is about writing not editing and it’s certainly not about deleting. So what do you do? Simple, jump ahead. If you know your story, jump ahead to the next scene or chapter and leave a big, to be continued hole, in the place where you’re stuck. Next month or next year, you can go back and look at where it went off track. Until then, you can enjoy the sensation of moving through your book towards the conclusion of the story.

Okay, that’s not my advice, that comes from Raymond Chandler and while tons of people will laugh at that kind of approach to writing, it fits perfectly to Nanowrimo. This is your one month of hard-hitting, quick-fire writing. If your story sucks, do something dramatic to rekindle your own interest. Let one of the characters be the only witness to murder, break a leg, develop an obsession for one of the others, anything. If your story has turned into a passed out mid-Victoria lady at a dinner party, give her a slap and stick something disgusting under her nose to wake her up.

However, if the process of writing bores you, I’m sorry, it can be boring sometimes but you just have to get through it. My trick here was Treacle Toffee. November is Bonfire Night season in the UK and Treacle Toffee is made for November 5th. I took a whole tin of that sticky stuff and let myself have a piece only when I was actively writing. The sugar rush is pretty intense, but thinking burns calories really fast (Sure. Whatever you need to tell yourself). And it’s like that gummy bear trick for getting kids to read textbooks. You want the treats, so deal with the boredom!

3. You don’t have time
Really, 1666 words on a subject that you know explicitly because it’s in your head? I’m kidding. I know it’s tough. While some people can do this in about half an hour for others it takes three. But the middle of November is not the time to quit. Why would you? All those positive feelings you’ll get from completing will be turned into feelings of defeat. Instead, you should forget the 1666 number and write to your heart’s content. If it’s a Monday night and you’re on 2k at 10pm, keep going if you’re on a role. It’s an investment for all those days when you can’t get or don’t have time to get past 500.

Bonus point. Forget the idea that it’s meant to be fun.
I’m dead serious here. So many good things are dressed up as being fun to get people to participate, but like the gym or going on a diet, why not fess-up and admit, the fun part is the having done it part.

Writing is work. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

Okay, the days are drawing in, the mornings are darker, the nights colder and Christmas is a long way off and no matter how many Grinch or Elf quotes I see on FB and Tw, no one is going to convince me otherwise. But never fear, there are some good sides to Fall/ Winter 16/17. I know this, because science tells me it is so. P.S. most but not all of these have to do with sex.

Okay, here we go.

Men find the same woman more sexually enticing as the winter progresses

This helpful titbit comes from the blog The Psychology of Human Sexuality who did a nifty bit of research showing that men who were shown the same picture of a woman’s body throughout the year, were more sexually aroused (no, I don’t know how they measured that. Answers on a postcard please) in December as in any other month. However, the same study found this only applied to pictures of bodies and not faces, so save those smiles for the ones who are worthy.

Quick turn off the TV… it’s the Dove ladies and Uncle Harry hasn’t had his meds yet.

December is the most sexed up month of the year

According to a study by sex toy firm Lovehoney, people have more sex in December than at any other time of the year. They claim this is because skin is in shorter supply and a small glimpse sets the pulse racing quicker… could be. Look at the Victorians. Legs were banned and they were mad for it. I know, I watch TV! However, I’m thinking, lots of booze filled office parties and get together with old friends might also have something to do with it. And yes, this is subjective antidotal evidence, but … shrug.

Putting on more clothes makes you horny

Say what? Apparently, we’re back to the Victorian’s again here, but wearing layers and feeling well wrapped up is a huge aphrodisiac, or so they say. It’s all to do with how being wrapped up make you take shallower breaths and this sends blood inwards… and downwards. You can ask Jezebel if you don’t believe me.

No, I have no idea what’s going on here either.

And last but not least…

The books we read in winter are better than our summer choices

This claim comes from the good people at Barnes & Noble who make their money out of knowing such things. The idea is, the books we buy for holiday reading during the summer are selected for their easy pick-up and put-down titles. That way, when we get too hot and need to take a dip, or decide to go off for a lazy 5 hour lunch or just get drunk on white wine at midday, we don’t feel like we’re missing out.

The good books, the ones we’re excited about, that sit on top of the TBR pile, we keep for winter. Christmas holidays, and the long January and February nights are the perfect time for us to indulge in books with great cabin fever fighting capabilities. At this time of year we are more likely to pay attention to the books we read and to concentrate on the storyline. So, if you haven’t stared War and Peace yet, now might be the time… but remember, be prepared to shelve it if your other half starts giving you funny looks last seen around this time last year!

P.S. Dead Memories. The 2nd book in the Carol Ann Baker series is out December 19th.